A Great Find!

Our group has been getting frustrated while searching around Wilmington for footage of Hurricanes Bertha and Fran for our final project. Today on a whim, I simply typed "Hurricane Bertha video" into Google, and the very first link had a video of Hurricane Bertha HITTING JOHNNIE MERCER'S PIER! I'm very excited about this find. The owner of the site even has information on how to get permission to use the footage, so we would be able to submit to festivals even if we use this footage. I'm adding the link (titled HurricaneTrack.com) to the links on the side of the blog.

Final Pitch

The shift of our Johnnie Mercer’s Pier project has shifted as we have gotten deeper into our research and shooting. We are now working towards a poetic portrait of the pier. While our expert interview with pier manager Matt Johnson went very well, we would like to interview James Neal and probably use his interview as the basis for our film. Mr. Neal has been around Wrightsville Beach his whole life (since probably the 1950’s), and he now works at the pier shop. He is a wonderful storyteller and full of knowledge about the area. Because he is so interesting, we think hearing about the pier from his perspective would be the most interesting and would go along with our message. While the film will now have a poetic bend, we would still like to make it relatable to other victims of natural disasters, so we will be sure to focus on the pier’s destruction and reconstruction. In order to do this, we still need to interview James Neal. We also need to do research at the library and around Wilmington to find images of Johnnie Mercer’s Pier at all stages in its history. We would also like to have footage of some other hurricane damage to incorporate into our film at some point, to directly relate this disaster to other natural disasters that have occurred. Another element that we still need to work on is sound. Aside from James Neal’s voice, we need to figure out what other audio we would like to have in our film. We still have a lot of work to do, but I think we have a strong sense of direction now for the film.

Project Summary

Johnnie Mercer’s Pier has been a key feature of Wrightsville Beach, NC since the 1930’s. When the pier was destroyed by Hurricanes Bertha and Fran in 1996, its owners knew immediately that they wanted to rebuild. Although the reconstruction process was long and very difficult, the pier reopened in 2001 and has experienced great success. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, Johnnie Mercer’s Pier is living proof that while it may be difficult, recovery is possible. This documentary will chronicle the pier’s life from before it was destroyed, through the reconstruction process, and up to its current status today.

Response

This article was one of the most informative articles I have read in all my years of college. The article was straight up with no BS, which is good because many filmmakers like to keep secrets. I was kind of upset by the gun portion of the article because I wanted to make a film that revolved around guns. The tip on editing was good as well because I was planning on taking the role of director/editor, which the article advises against. Finally, I’m glad the article stressed getting the audience interested in the first few minutes of the movie so it does not bore the audience. I think this is one of the hardest things to do with independent films.

I know why the film was rejected!

This article is very useful to anyone who wants to submit a film to a festival. Because of my experience with Vision last semester, I feel like I knew most of this information already. From jurying the submissions we received, I realized firsthand what it's like to sit through a poorly-scripted or edited film, and I subconsciously absorbed what not to do from watching it. Because our screening was so short, I also know that the shorter the film, the more likely it is to be accepted. Even more frustrating, I know that your film may not be accepted even if it follows all this advice, simply because of the volume of entries received. While I lived a lot of this article first-hand, I think it is a great resource for anyone just starting out with film festivals.

Why was my film rejected?

The tips on how to make sure your film has a chance of getting in to festivals were all extremely helpful AND SIMPLE! Make sure the quality is good, the story concice, and the plot original. It seems like filmmakers get so excited about there film and don't want to cut them down to a good 5 to 10 minutes because they don't want to lose any footage and they don't realize that this is the very reason their short does not make it into the festival.

Posted by Sarah

Response to Festival Article

I think that this article was very helpful. It oulined everything that the judges are looking for when they recieve submissions for film festivals. A lot of it seemed like common sense things that you know you should be thinking about, but you need to be reminded of. Sometimes when trying to make a film, the filmmaker can get hung up on trying to create a masterpiece that he/she overlooks important things that are very obvious to an outside audience. It's very good advice for any filmmaker to keep in mind for future festival submissions.